Drone Show Latin America, the first drone fair in the region, was held in São Paulo in late October (28th and 29th), receiving more than two thousand and a half and 25 exhibitors visitors mainly from Brazil and other countries like Uruguay, Argentina, Peru, Chile and Venezuela, Angola, Mocambique, USA, Germany, France, India, China, according to Mr. Emerson Graneman, MundoGeo’ s director, the company in charge of organizing the event. ” The final results surpassed our expectations by 25%. We were also surprised by the quality of our audience, which showed great interest in the products and technology embedded in drones, as much as a real interest and willingness to broaden their professional horizon, leveraging new businesses”, said the dircetor.

Even though there is no predicition to the extent of the fair in generating future businesses, there is an expectation that the drone market will generate about 100 to 200 million reals sales in 2016. Such an optimistic expectation is mainly due to the ANAC (the Brazilian National Civil Aviation Agency) regulation for the professional use of drones in the country, estimated for the beginning of next year. “Companies are waiting for it in order to define the best strategy to invest in the sector. Many opportunities will emerge after the regulation. Our event was held in this opportune and unique moment”, concluded Granemann.

Images captured by drones , or UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles), are already being used in an array of economic activities, like engineering, agriculture, mining, mapping, advertising, security, law enforcement, news broadcast, events, among others. As reported by the Brazilian Multirotor Association (ABM) , there are today more than 20 thousand professional drone pilots in Brazil. “This number is bound to grow even bigger after the regulation”, claims the organizer of the Drone Show Latin America, who acknowledges the rise of three to five thousand new job opportunities in direct and indirect labor in 2016, counting all the diverse areas involved in the sector.

In order to express his optimism, Mr Granemann has already confirmed the second edition of the show for São Paulo on May, 10 to 12 next year, predicting an increase by 50% in the total number of exhibitors and participants.